Reciprocating mass without counterweights. That’ll shake your fillings right out. They need one on the opposite side moving in opposition. Synchronization would be an interesting challenge.

How about a small Brayton cycle? Burns any fuel, quiet, vibration free, only one moving part, no reciprocating mass. My Dad led a project in the 70s or 80s at GE to build a small Brayton cycle to provide aux power to RVs. The engine prototype was just beautiful. The oil shocks killed that project.

Philips developed a flashlight right after WWII that required the user to continuously squeeze and unsqueeze the device which, in turn caused a generator to develop enough current to power a light bulb.

The faster the user squeezed and unsqueezed, the brighter the light.

When flash light batteries became available again, the device became defunct.

(to unsqueeze is a new verb, meaning to release the pressure generated by squeezing an object.)

You could put a head at each end, and one head would fire the piston one way and the other would fire it back. Then build a bank of these that are timed to counterbalance each other. You could even vary the voltage output by controlling the timing of the counter-cylinder firing. It would be a little like juggling.

But, I like one of the other poster’s ideas: perfect the Wankel rotary engine and bolt the output shaft to a generator.

Look for some of the Quasi-Cross Section drawings that were on GreenCarCongress, for the "Gas Spring Chamber" The underside of the piston has a column that is compresses air on and that I think that air also becomes the Combustion air for the Loop Charge since this is a Uniflow 2 Stroke wherein the air-charge comes in at BTC and in combination with the Exhaust Valves and Direct Injection, make getting air and fuel in and once it burnt out possible.

This concept has been bantered about before, this looks more advanced than anything else I have seen.

What no one considers, is I think this engine is almost "Adiabatic", i.e. their is No visible Cooling or Lubrication System. Remember Friction is a huge gobbler efficiency, no plain, needle, or ball bearing on connecting rod(s), crankshaft or camshaft(s). Notice the Exhaust Valves look to be driven by Solenoid(s), no friction gobbling valve train.

What we could have is almost an Un-Lubricated and Un-Cooled Engine, think of the savings in Lubrication Oil and Anti-Freeze.

Add a Carbon-Carbon Piston and Run it on CNG via a new Direct Injector and you would really have something.

Don't go to your house and plug in the Hybrid, Plug your House up to the Hybrid, this is your own Home-Generator Unit and no one see's it....

24
posted on 05/04/2014 1:34:56 PM PDT
by taildragger
(The E-GOP won't know what hit them, The Party of Reagan is almost here, hang tight folks....)

Turbines are quite expensive. They have to run at real high temperatures (which requires expen$ive alloys for the parts) to get good fuel efficiency. Great power to weight ratio but expensive, thus suited for aircraft.

There are opposed cylinder engines, and that made me then think of opposed piston engines (like the big Fairbanks-Morse diesels). Then someone brings up the Uniflow engine, and by happy circumstance I just finished reading Richard Hills' "Power From Steam," which discusses this concept along with other steam-driven engines that date from Savery to Parsons.

More than once, I have had the experience of opening up the hood of my Subaru and having someone who is familiar with most cars look down in there and then look up at me with a baffled expression. One told me that it looked like "an airplane engine with a lot of s#$@ stuck on top of it."

Mr. Niteowl77

30
posted on 05/04/2014 2:46:06 PM PDT
by niteowl77
("Why do we go to Iowa? Because that's where the suckers are.")

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.